Sunday, June 28, 2009
Barbara and Jeffry Picower (photo: Lucien Capehart, MIT)
On Monday morning, U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin will decide if Bernard Madoff will spend the rest of his life in prison. Of the more than 1,300 individuals swindled by Madoff, one investor who can’t say he was victimized by the now-infamous Ponzi scheme is Jeffry Picower. Court records have revealed that Picower, a reclusive attorney and accountant, netted more than $5 billion from his investments in the scheme—far more than even Madoff ended up with. That success has resulted in a lawsuit by other investors who contend Picower knew what Madoff was up to, but failed to stop the illegal maneuverings.
An investigation by ProPublica tried unsuccessfully to determine what Picower, a tax shelter expert, may have done with the $5 billion in earnings he and his family withdrew from their Madoff accounts between 1995 and 2008. All that turned up was a home in Palm Beach valued at $28 million, a 28.4-acre compound in Connecticut worth $4.5 million, and little else.
The Picower family has been known to give generously to certain causes and institutions, including the Children’s Aid Society, the New York City Ballet, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which received a $50 million gift in 2005 to establish the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory for brain research.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Madoff Client Jeffry Picower Netted $5 Billion—Likely More Than Madoff Himself (by Jake Bernstein, ProPublica)
Madoff Suits Add Details About Fraud (by Diana Henriques, New York Times)
Picard v. Picower (United States Bankruptcy Court Southern District Of New York)
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